Various forms of stabilizers have been heretofore designed for use on sail and power boats in order to reduce heeling. The limitations of current mono-hull design and ballast stability are poor hull fineness ratios and dead weight inefficiencies, both of which increase drag, reduce speed and require excess power, whether engine or sail, to propel the hull through or over a body of water.
Although other types of hulls such as pure hydrofoils, outriggers and multihulls initially afford considerable resistance to heeling, these hulls are fragile, unstable in rough water and possess neutral or negative righting moments at extreme angles of heel. Accordingly, the mono-hull ship design has enjoyed continued favor, even in the presence of continuous improvements being made in hydrofoils, outriggers and multihulls.
However, while gyroscopically controlled and hydraulically actuated stabilizing foils used on mono-hull design ships appear to be most promising in principle, such systems are complex, heavy, expensive and require two different sources of internally generated power in order to function.
In addition to gyroscopically controlled, stabilizing foils, various other types of righting moment generating devices have been designed for use in conjunction with mono-hulls. Examples of some of these other types of righting moment producing devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 148,454, 537,667, 648,911, 699,231, 3,080,845 and 3,324,815. These previously patented righting moment producing structures are all to some degree operable in the desired manner, but most are constructed in a manner which appreciably increases the drag of the associated hull. Accordingly, these previously patented forms of hull righting moment producing structures have not enjoyed more than limited application.